Jeremiah 46:1-51:58

EasyEnglish Bible

³ ‘Get ready to march to the battle!
Pick up your shields and your weapons.
⁴ Prepare your horses and sit on them.
Put on your helmets and be ready to fight.
Make your spears sharp.
Put on your armour!’

‘But I see this:
The soldiers are afraid and they are running away!
They cannot win the fight.
Terror is everywhere around them.^[b]
They do not turn to look behind them.
They run away as fast as they can.
⁶ But none of them can run fast enough.
Even the strongest soldiers cannot escape.
In the north, beside the River Euphrates,
they fall down to the ground.

⁷ A nation is rising up, like the great waters of the Nile river.
Who is this nation?
⁸ Egypt is rising like the waters of the Nile.
Its streams of water quickly pour out over the earth.
Egypt says, “I will rise up and I will cover the earth.
I will destroy cities.
I will kill the people who live in them.”
⁹ So ride your horses quickly into the battle!
Drive your chariots as fast as they will go!
Tell your soldiers to march forward into the battle.
Send your soldiers of Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields.
Send your soldiers of Lydia who have bows and arrows.
¹⁰ But it is the Lord God Almighty who will win!
It is the day when he will punish his enemies.
His sword will completely destroy them,
like a hungry person who cannot stop eating!
His sword will cause a lot of blood to pour out.
The Lord God Almighty will accept his enemies as a sacrifice.
That is what will happen in the northern land beside the Euphrates river.

¹¹ Dear people of Egypt,
go to Gilead and find medicine to make you well.
But that will not help you.
There is no medicine that will make you better.
¹² The other nations will see that you are ashamed.
All over the earth, people will hear you as you weep.
As your soldiers run from the battle,
they will fall over each other.
They will fall to the ground together.’

¹⁴ ‘Shout this message everywhere in Egypt.
Let people hear it in Migdol, Memphis and in Tahpanhes.
“Get ready to fight against your enemies!
They are already killing the people all around you.”
¹⁵ Your brave soldiers will fall.
They will lie flat on the ground.
They cannot stand and fight because the Lord will knock them down.
¹⁶ They will continue to fall over each other.
They will say to each other, “Get up!
We must return to our homes where our own people live.
We must escape from our enemies, who want to kill us.”
¹⁷ When they get back home, they will say,
“The king of Egypt is only a loud noise.
He could not win when he had the chance.” ’

‘I promise you, as surely as I live,
that a powerful army will come to fight against you!
They will look as great as Tabor looks among the other mountains.
They will seem like Carmel mountain that stands beside the sea.
¹⁹ You dear people of Egypt, be ready to travel as prisoners to a foreign land!
Your enemy will destroy Memphis city.
It will become a heap of stones where nobody lives.
²⁰ Egypt is like a beautiful young cow.
But an army from the north will attack her, like a crowd of flies that bite.
²¹ Egypt has paid soldiers from other countries to help her.
But they are like fat calves that are too weak to fight.
They will not stand and fight, but they will turn and run away.
Yes, the day of Egypt's punishment has arrived!
Their enemy has come to destroy them.
²² Egypt's people will run away, like a snake along the ground.
The enemy's strong army will march forward.
They will attack Egypt with axes, like men who cut down trees.
²³ Egypt's soldiers are as many as the trees in a great forest.
But the enemy's soldiers will cut them down.
Their army is like a hungry crowd of locusts.
They are too many to count.
²⁴ The people of Egypt will be ashamed.
They will be under the power of the people from the north.’

² ‘Look at what is happening!
Armies in the north are rising like a flood of water.
They will pour out from there like a great river.
They will cover the whole land and everything in it.
They will destroy the cities and the people who live in them.
People will shout for help.
Everyone who lives there will cry with pain.
³ They will hear the sound of their enemies' horses
and the loud noises of their chariots.
Fathers will not turn back to save their children,
because fear has made them weak.
⁴ The time has come when the Lord will destroy all the Philistines.
None of them will remain to give help to Tyre and Sidon.
The Lord is ready to destroy the Philistines who remain.
Those are the people who came from the island of Crete.^[d]
5 The people of Gaza will cut the hair off their heads
because they are so upset.
In Ashkelon, nobody will say a word.
You Philistines who live near the sea and are still alive,
will you continue to cut your bodies?^[e]
6 You shout to the Lord, “How long will you attack us with your sword?
Please stop killing us! Put your sword away!”
⁷ But the Lord has commanded his sword to kill.
So it cannot rest!
The Lord has commanded his sword to attack Ashkelon
and the people who live on the coast of the sea.’

‘Nebo city is in terrible trouble!
It will soon become a heap of stones.
The people of Kiriathaim city will be ashamed.
Its enemies will take it for themselves.
They will knock down its strong buildings,
and its people will be ashamed.
² People will no longer praise Moab.
In Heshbon, Moab's enemies will decide how to destroy the nation.
They will say, “We must completely destroy Moab!”
The town of Madmen will become silent,
as a great army chases out the people.
³ The people of Horonaim will shout for help,
because a strong army is destroying them.
⁴ Moab will come to an end!
Its children will cry loudly.
⁵ They will go up the hill to Luhith.
They will weep as they go.
As they go down the road towards Horonaim,
they will cry about their town that the enemy is destroying.
⁶ People say, “Run away to save your lives!
Go and live in the desert.”
⁷ People of Moab, you trusted your riches and your skills to save you.
Because of that, your enemies will catch you.
They will even take your god Chemosh away as prisoner,
together with his priests and officers.
⁸ Your cruel enemy will attack every town.
No town or city will escape.
The enemy will destroy every place in the valley,
and every place on the high ground.
They will become heaps of stones.

⁹ Dig a grave to bury Moab!^[g]
Its land will become like a desert.
Its cities will become heaps of stones.
Nobody will live in them.’

¹⁴ Men of Moab, you should no longer say,
“We are brave soldiers who know how to fight.”

The enemy will soon destroy Moab and its cities.
They will kill its strongest young men.
¹⁶ Moab will soon come to an end.
Terrible trouble will quickly destroy it.

¹⁷ You nations that live around Moab,
you know how famous it has been.
But now you must weep for it.
Say, “Moab's royal power is finished!
They no longer have great power to rule!”
¹⁸ You people who live in Dibon must stop being proud.
Come down from the places where people give you honour.
Sit on the ground in the dirt.
Moab's cruel enemy has arrived.
They will cause your strong buildings to become heaps of stones.
¹⁹ You people who live in Aroer,
stand beside the road and watch.
Ask the people who are running away what has happened.
²⁰ They will reply, “The enemy has won against Moab
and its people are ashamed.
So weep and cry out!
Stand beside the Arnon river and tell the news.
Tell people that the enemy has destroyed Moab.”

²⁶ ‘Moab has turned against me.
So my anger will make him like a person who is drunk.
He will lie down in the place where he has been sick.
People will laugh at him.
²⁷ You people of Moab laughed at my people, the Israelites.
Why did you insult them?
You said that they were no better than a group of robbers.
²⁸ Now you must all leave your towns.
Go and live among the rocks.
Live like doves that make their nests high up among the rocks.
²⁹ We have heard that Moab's people are very proud.
They think that they are better than everyone else.
We know how much they boast.’

‘I know about Moab's proud thoughts.
But their pride is false.
Whatever they do, it will be useless.
³¹ So I am sad for Moab. I am crying for all their people.
I weep for the people of Kir-Heres.^[h]
32 I weep for the vines of Sibmah, more than Jazer weeps.
The branches of those vines reached across the sea as far as Jazer.^[i]
But the cruel enemy will destroy all the fruit that grows on your vines and trees.
³³ People will no longer be happy in the land where this fruit grows.
I will stop them making wine from their grapes.
They will not stamp on their grapes and shout with joy.
Instead, the shouts will be shouts about trouble.
³⁴ In Heshbon and Elealeh people cry out because of their pain.
The noise reaches as far as Jahaz.
It reaches from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-Shelishiyah.
Even the Nimrim river has become dry.’

‘I will remove the people of Moab who worship other gods.
They offer sacrifices to them
and they burn incense at their altars.
³⁶ So I am very sad for the people of Moab.
I weep like a flute that plays a funeral song.
I am sad for the people of Kir-Heres,
because all their riches will disappear.
³⁷ All the men will be very upset.
They will cut the hair off their heads and their faces.
They will use knives to cut their hands.
They will wear sackcloth as their clothes.
³⁸ People are standing on the roofs of their houses.
They are standing in the streets.
They are all crying and weeping.
They are sad because I have destroyed Moab.
I have broken it in pieces, like a jar that I no longer want.’

³⁹ ‘Yes, Moab will be like a broken jar.
Its people will weep with loud voices.
They will turn away because they are ashamed.
All the nations around there will laugh at Moab.
They will see the terrible trouble that it has received.’

‘Look at the enemy that suddenly arrives!
It comes like an eagle that flies down to catch its food.
⁴¹ The enemy will take Moab's towns and its strong buildings.
Moab's soldiers will be afraid,
like a woman who will soon give birth.
⁴² Moab has been proud and it has turned against the Lord.
So they will no longer be a nation.’

‘People of Moab, there will be danger, deep holes and traps that are ready to catch you!
⁴⁴ Anyone who runs away from danger, will fall into a deep hole.
And a trap will catch anyone who climbs out of the deep hole.
Yes, the time will soon come when I will punish Moab's people.
⁴⁵ People will run away to Heshbon to be safe.
They will be helpless as they stand outside its walls.
Flames of fire will come out from Heshbon,
the city where King Sihon once ruled.
It will burn as far as Moab's borders.
It will destroy those proud people who love to fight.
⁴⁶ It will be very bad for you, you people of Moab!
The enemy will destroy you people who worship Chemosh.
They will take away your sons and your daughters.
They will take them as prisoners to a foreign land.
⁴⁷ But one day I will cause Moab to be strong again.’

‘There are plenty of Israel's descendants who are still alive.
They are strong enough to live in the land that is their home.
So why have people who worship the god Molech moved in to the land of Gad's tribe?
They should not be living in towns that belong to Gad's people.’^[j]

‘A time will come when an army attacks Rabbah, Ammon's capital city.
Its people will hear the noise of a battle.
The city will become a big heap of stones.
Fire will destroy the villages around it.
Then the Israelites will chase out the people who had taken their land from them.’

³ ‘You people in Heshbon, cry aloud,
because the enemy has destroyed Ai.
Weep, you people who live in Rabbah.
Dress yourselves in sackcloth, because you are so sad.
Run around inside the city.
The enemy will take away your idol of Molech.
They will take Molech's priests and their officers to a foreign land.
⁴ You people of Ammon boast about your power.
But that will soon come to an end!
You have not been faithful.
You have trusted in your riches and you say,
“Nobody will be able to attack us!” ’

‘I will bring terror all around you.^[k]
Your enemy will chase you away in all directions.
Nobody will be able to bring you together again.
⁶ But in future days, I will make Ammon's people strong again.’

‘It seems that wisdom has disappeared from Teman.
Edom's clever men have no good advice.
Their great ideas have gone away.
⁸ You people who live in Dedan, run away and escape!
Go and find somewhere safe to hide!
The time has come for me to punish Esau's descendants.
I will cause them to have terrible trouble.
⁹ If people came to pick your grapes,
they would leave a few grapes on the vines.
If robbers came at night to take your things,
they would only take the things that they needed.
¹⁰ But I will take everything from Esau's descendants,
so that they have nothing.
I will open their secret places,
so that they have nowhere to hide.
The enemy will destroy them and their children, family and friends.
None of them will remain alive.
¹¹ But I will take care of your widows and the children who have no family.
You can trust me to keep them safe.’

‘Prepare your armies to attack Edom.
Prepare to fight a battle against Edom!’

‘I will make you a weak nation that nobody respects.
¹⁶ You are proud people.
You boast that you cause other people to be afraid of you.
But your thoughts have deceived you.
You live high up among the rocks,
and on the tops of mountains.
But I will bring you down from there,
even if you are as high as an eagle's nest.’

¹⁸ Edom will become a heap of stones where nobody lives.
The same thing happened to Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the towns that were near them.
Edom will be as empty as a desert.’

¹⁹ ‘I will attack the people of Edom
and I will chase them out of their land.
I will be like a lion that has been hiding in the forest.
It attacks the sheep in the fields beside the Jordan River.
Like that lion, I will suddenly chase Edom's people out of their country.
Then I will choose a leader to rule that nation.
There is nobody who is like me.
Nobody can accuse me of anything.
No ruler can stand against me.

This is what I have decided to do to Edom.
Yes, this is the trouble that I will bring to the people who live in Teman.
Soldiers will catch their children and take them away,
like little lambs that they take from their mothers.
I will completely destroy their homes.
²¹ When Edom's people fall,
the noise will cause the whole earth to shake.
The sound of their sad voices will reach as far as the Red Sea.
²² A nation will rise up high, like an eagle in the sky.
It will fly down to catch its food in Bozrah!
When the brave soldiers of Edom see that, they will become very afraid.
They will be afraid, like a woman who will soon give birth.’

‘The people of Hamath and Arpad will hear bad news.
It will cause them to be upset.
They will no longer feel brave.
They will not be able to rest because they are afraid.
²⁴ The people of Damascus will become weak.
They will try to run away.
They will become confused because of their fear.
They will feel pain like a woman who is giving birth.
²⁵ Damascus was a famous city.
The people who lived in it were very happy.
But now it will become empty.
²⁶ Its young men will die in its streets.
All its soldiers will be dead.
²⁷ I will burn down the city walls of Damascus.
Fire will destroy the palaces of King Ben-Hadad.’

‘March to Kedar and attack the city!^[n]
Destroy those people who live east of Judah.
²⁹ Take away their tents and their sheep.
Take their curtains and the other things in their tents.
Carry those things away with their camels.
Cause the people to shout,
“Terror is everywhere around us!” ’^[o]

‘You people who live in Hazor, run away quickly!
Go and find somewhere safe to hide!
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has decided to attack you.
He knows how he will destroy you.’

‘Go and attack that nation.
They think that they are strong and safe.
But their city has no gates or walls to protect them.
They live far away from other people.
³² Take their camels and their farm animals for yourselves.
I will chase away those people who live in the desert and who cut their hair short.
I will send them away in every direction.
And I will bring terrible trouble from every direction to hurt them.
³³ Hazor will become as empty as a desert.
Only wild animals will live there.
It will always be a place where no people live.’

‘Listen to me! Elam's army makes them a strong nation.
They have soldiers who can shoot arrows well.
But I will destroy those soldiers.
³⁶ I will cause enemies to attack Elam,
like winds that blow from every direction.
I will chase Elam's people away in every direction.
They will run away to live in every other nation of the world.
³⁷ I will make them very afraid of their enemies who want to kill them.
I will cause them to have terrible trouble,
because I am very angry with them.’

‘I will send soldiers to attack them,
until I have completely destroyed them.
³⁸ I will destroy their kings and their leaders.
I will be the king who rules over Elam.’

³⁹ ‘But at a future time,
I will make Elam strong again.’

² ‘Tell this news to the nations!
Wave a flag to make sure that people listen!
Do not try to hide anything. Say this:
“Enemies will take Babylon.
Bel will become ashamed.
Yes, Marduk will be afraid.^[p]
All Babylon's disgusting idols will be ashamed.” 
³ A nation from the north will attack Babylon.
They will destroy the whole land.
People and animals will all run away,
so that nobody lives there.’

the people of Israel and Judah will return to their land.
They will weep because of their sins.
They will want to worship the Lord their God.
⁵ They will ask people to show them the way to Zion.
They will travel in that direction.
They will promise to serve the Lord.
They will make a covenant with him that will continue for ever.
Nobody will ever forget that covenant.^[q]
6 My people have been like sheep that are lost.
Their leaders should have taken care of them like shepherds.
Instead, they have let my people become lost,
like sheep that have gone into the mountains.
They go from one hill to another hill,
and they have forgotten where their home is.
⁷ Anyone who found them killed them.
Their enemies said, “We are not guilty for their death.
They deserved to die because they turned against the Lord.
He is their true home where they are safe.
But they turned against the Lord,
the God that their ancestors trusted.” ’

⁸ ‘People of Judah, escape quickly from Babylon!
Leave the land of Babylonia!
Be the first people to leave.
Lead the other people away,
like a male goat that leads the other goats.
⁹ I will call a group of strong nations from the north.
They will join together to fight against Babylon.
They will get ready to attack.
They will come from the north
and they will take power over Babylon.
Their arrows will be like brave soldiers.
They will kill everyone that they want to kill.
¹⁰ The people of Babylonia will lose all their things.
Enemy soldiers will take everything that they want for themselves.’

¹¹ ‘You people of Babylon are very happy,
because you have robbed my people.
You dance like young cows that have fresh grass to eat.
You make a happy noise, like a strong male horse.
¹² Babylon is like your mother who gave you life,
but she will become ashamed.
Yes, she will become the least important of all nations.
The country will be dry and empty, like a desert.
¹³ Nobody will live in Babylon,
because I, the Lord, am very angry with it.
It will be only a heap of stones.
Everyone who goes that way will see that it is a disgusting place.
They will insult Babylon,
because of the terrible troubles that have happened to it.’

¹⁴ ‘Get ready to fight, all you soldiers who have bows and arrows.
Stand in your places around Babylon.
Shoot your arrows into the city! Shoot all of them!
Punish Babylon, because its people have turned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Shout as you attack the city from all sides.
Its people are ready to stop fighting.
Its strong towers will fall down.
You will knock down its walls.
The Lord is punishing Babylon,
so punish the people for their sins!
Do the same thing to them that they have done to other people.
¹⁶ Remove from Babylon all the farmers who plant crops.
Remove all the people who cut the crops at harvest time.
The foreigners must return to their own homes.
They must run away to escape from the enemy army.’

¹⁷ ‘Israel's enemies have chased them away to many different places.
They are like sheep that hungry lions have chased away.
The first to catch them was the king of Assyria.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed them,
like a lion that broke their bones.’^[r]

‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his country,
as I punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹ But I will bring Israel's people back to their own land.
They will grow their crops on Carmel and in Bashan.
They will have plenty of food to eat
on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
²⁰ At that time, I will forgive the sins of my people.
I have let a few people of Israel and Judah remain.
And they will no longer be guilty of any sins.’

‘Attack the land of Merathaim.
Attack the people who live in Pekod.^[s]
Run after them! Kill them! Completely destroy them!
Do everything that I have commanded you to do.
²² There is a noise of war in the land of Babylonia.
The enemy is destroying everything!
²³ Babylon attacked other nations of the world,
like a hammer that breaks things into pieces.
But now that hammer has broken into pieces.
Now the other nations see that Babylon is a disgusting place.
²⁴ Babylon, I put a trap to catch you,
and you did not know about it.
Now I have caught you in my trap,
because you fought against me.
²⁵ I have taken out my weapons from the place where I had stored them.
I will use those weapons to punish the people of Babylonia,
because I am very angry with them.^[t]
I am the Lord God Almighty.
I have work to do in the land of Babylonia.
²⁶ Now come from far away to attack Babylonia!
Break open the store rooms and take out the grain.
Knock down their buildings and break them into pieces.
Completely destroy everything.
Do not let anything remain!
²⁷ Kill all their strong soldiers.
Let them go to their place of death!
Terrible trouble has come to the people of Babylon.
The time of their punishment has arrived!’

²⁹ ‘Bring all the soldiers with bows and arrows to attack Babylon.
They must make their camp all around the city.
Do not let anyone escape.
Punish the people for the things that they have done.
Do the same thing to them that they have done to others.
Those people have insulted me, Israel's holy God.
³⁰ So Babylon's young men will die in its streets.
All its soldiers will die in battle on that day.’

‘You people of Babylon are very proud,
so I will fight against you.
Now the day has come
when I will punish you for your sins.
³² You are proud but you will fall to the ground.
Nobody will help you to get up.
I will burn Babylonia's towns with fire,
and it will destroy everything that is around them.’

‘People have been cruel to the people of Israel and Judah.
Enemies have taken them away as prisoners.
They have refused to let my people go free.
³⁴ But my name is the Lord Almighty.
I am strong and I will rescue my people.
I will fight hard to save them.
I will bring peace to their land.
But the people of Babylonia will only have trouble.’

‘I am sending an army to fight against Babylon.
They will attack the people of Babylonia,
its leaders and its wise men.
³⁶ They will attack its false prophets,
and people will see that the prophets are fools.
They will attack the soldiers of Babylonia,
and those soldiers will be very afraid.
³⁷ They will attack Babylonia's horses and chariots,
and the foreign soldiers who belong to its army.
They will become as weak as women.
The enemy soldiers will take Babylon's valuable things.
They will take them away for themselves.
³⁸ There will be no rain on the land
so that the rivers and streams become dry.
I will send all this trouble because
their whole land is full of idols.
The people become crazy
because they are afraid of their idols.
³⁹ Hyenas and other wild animals will live there.
Ostriches will live there, too.
But people will never live there again.
It will remain as empty as a desert.
⁴⁰ Babylonia will become a heap of stones where nobody lives.
The same thing happened to Sodom and Gomorrah
and the towns near to them.
Nobody will live there any more.’

⁴¹     ‘Look! An army is coming from the north.
    A great nation and many kings are preparing to attack.
    They are coming from a place that is far away.
⁴²     Its soldiers carry bows and spears as their weapons.
    They are always cruel and they are never kind.
    They ride into the battle on their horses,
    and it sounds like the noise of the sea.
    They are ready to attack you, people of Babylon!
⁴³     The king of Babylon has heard news about them,
    and he is very afraid.
    He feels too weak to fight.
    He feels pain like a woman who is giving birth.
⁴⁴ I will attack the people of Babylonia,
    and I will chase them out of their land.
    I will do that like a lion that has been hiding in the forest.
    It attacks the sheep in the fields beside the Jordan River.
    Like that lion, I will suddenly chase Babylonia's people out of their country.
    Then I will choose a leader to rule that nation.
    There is nobody who is like me.
    Nobody can accuse me of anything.
    No ruler can stand against me.
⁴⁵ So listen to me, the Lord!
    This is what I have decided to do to Babylon.
    Yes, this is the trouble that I will bring to the people of Babylonia.
    Soldiers will catch their children and take them away,
    like little lambs that they take from their mothers.
    I will completely destroy their homes.
⁴⁶     When the enemy takes power over Babylon,
    the noise will cause the whole earth to shake.
    The other nations will hear Babylon's people shout with pain.’

‘I will send an enemy to destroy Babylon and the people of Babylonia.
It will come like a strong wind that blows them away.
² I will send foreign soldiers to remove them from their land,
like a wind that blows chaff away.
They will make the land become empty.
On the day of that great trouble,
they will attack Babylonia from all directions.
³ Do not give Babylon's soldiers time to pick up their weapons!
Do not give them time to put on their armour!
Kill all their young men.
Completely destroy their whole army.
⁴ Their dead bodies will lie on the ground
all over Babylonia and in the streets of the city.
⁵ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God,
will not leave Israel and Judah on their own.
Those people are guilty of many bad things
that they have done against Israel's holy God.^[u]
6 Run away from Babylonia!
Run quickly to escape from there!
Do not stay there to die along with Babylonia's people.
The time has come for the Lord to pay them back for their sins.
He will punish them as they deserve.
⁷ Babylon has been like a gold cup of wine in the Lord's hand.
The nations of the world had to drink that wine.^[v]
It made everyone become drunk,
and so they all became crazy.
⁸ But now Babylon will quickly fall.
An enemy will destroy it, so weep for it!
Find some medicine that will make its wounds better.
Perhaps it will become well again.

“We tried to make its wounds better,
but it was not possible to do it.
Now we must leave it.
We must each go back to our own country.
Its punishment will have no end.
It will reach as high as the sky!”

“The Lord has shown that we are his people.
Now we must go to Jerusalem.
We must tell people in Zion
about how the Lord our God has helped us.” ’

¹¹ ‘Make your arrows sharp!
Prepare your weapons!
The Lord has caused Media's kings to prepare for war.
He will use them to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will punish the people of Babylonia
because they destroyed his temple.
¹² Wave a flag and prepare to attack Babylon's city walls!
Bring plenty of guards to watch all around the city.
Put soldiers to catch anyone who tries to escape.
Yes, the Lord will now do everything that he has decided.
He will punish Babylon's people, as he said he would do.
¹³ You people of Babylon, who live beside many rivers,
it is now time for you to die.
You have become rich with many valuable things,
but now your lives will finish.’^[w]

with the authority of his own name:
‘I will cause the enemy's soldiers to fill your cities.
They will come like a big crowd of locusts.
They will shout loudly when they take your city for themselves.’

²⁰ ‘You are the weapon that I use to fight my battles.^[y]
I have used you to punish nations.
I have used you to destroy kingdoms.
²¹ I have used you to destroy whole armies,
with their horses, chariots and riders.
²² I have used you to destroy men and women,
old men, young men, boys and girls.
²³ I have used you to destroy shepherds and their sheep,
as well as farmers and their oxen.
I have used you to destroy rulers and their officers.
²⁴ But now I will punish Babylon
and all the people who live in Babylonia.
I will pay them back for all the evil things that they did in Jerusalem.
And you will see me do that.’

‘Listen to me, Babylon! I am your enemy!
You are like a strong mountain that destroys the whole earth.
I will punish you with all my strength.
I will push you down from your high place.
I will make you a heap of ashes.
²⁶ Nobody will be able to use any of your stones
as a foundation for a new building.
You will remain as empty as a desert for ever.’

²⁷ ‘Call the nations to come and fight a battle against Babylonia.
Wave a flag and make a noise with trumpets,
so that these kingdoms prepare their armies to attack:
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Choose a captain to lead them into battle.
Send an army of soldiers on horses to attack,
like a large crowd of locusts.
²⁸ Tell the nations to prepare their armies for war against Babylonia.
Tell the kings of Media to get ready,
as well as their leaders and officers.
The armies of the countries that they rule must also be ready to fight.
²⁹ The whole earth will shake with pain
as the Lord punishes Babylonia.
He will certainly do what he has decided to do.
He will make the land of Babylonia as empty as a desert.
Nobody will live there.
³⁰ The brave soldiers of Babylonia are no longer fighting!
They remain inside their strong buildings.
Their strength has gone! They are as weak as women.
In their cities, enemy soldiers are burning their houses.
They have broken down the city gates.
³¹ Now people run to send the news to the king of Babylon.
They pass this message along the line:
“The enemy has taken power over the whole city!
³² They have guards to stop people escaping across the rivers.
They have burned the reeds in the wet fields.
All our soldiers are afraid.”

Babylon is like a threshing floor
that is ready for people to stamp on wheat.
The harvest time will soon come!
Then the enemy will cut down Babylon,
and they will stamp all over it!’

³⁴ ‘King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has destroyed us with his army.
He has made us weak and confused.
He has eaten us like a hungry monster.
He has filled himself with all our good things.
Then he spat us out of his mouth.’

‘Please punish the people of Babylonia,
because they did cruel things to us.’

‘Pay back the people of Babylonia,
because they killed our relatives.’

‘I will help you to win.
I will punish the people of Babylonia for what they have done to you.
I will cause all their rivers and their springs to become dry.
³⁷ Babylon will become a heap of stones.
Wild animals will live there.
People will see that it is a disgusting place,
and they will laugh at it.
Nobody will live there.
³⁸ Its people shout loudly, like lions that roar.
They make a noise like baby lions that are hungry.
³⁹ While they are feeling so hungry,
I will prepare a feast for them.
I will cause them to become drunk,
and they will become helpless.
They will sleep for ever
and they will never wake up again.’

⁴⁰ ‘I will take them down to the place of death.
People will kill them as if they are lambs, sheep and goats.’

⁴¹ ‘Now an enemy will take power over Babylon!
Everyone in the world praised it as a great nation.
But now all the nations will see that it is a disgusting place.
⁴² The sea will pour over it.
Many waves of water will cover it.
⁴³ Babylonia's towns will become heaps of stones.
The land will be dry and empty, like a desert.
Nobody will live there any more.
Nobody will even travel through the land.
⁴⁴ I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon.
I will cause him to give back everything that he has taken.
Nations will never go to worship him again.
Yes, the walls of Babylon will fall down!’

⁴⁵ ‘Escape from Babylon, my people!
Run away to save your lives!
The Lord is very angry with that place,
so run away from there!

When you hear news in Babylon of what is happening,
do not be afraid.
People will report one thing this year,
and next year they will report a different thing.
They will speak about violence in the land,
and about rulers who are fighting against each other.
⁴⁷ So the time will soon come when I will punish Babylon's idols.
The whole country will become ashamed.
Its people will die and their dead bodies will lie everywhere.
⁴⁸ Then everyone in heaven and everyone on the earth
will shout with joy because of what happens to Babylon.
They will be happy because an army will come from the north to destroy it.’

⁴⁹ ‘Babylon's people have caused the death of people everywhere.
They have killed many Israelites.
So now Babylon must lose its power.
⁵⁰ You Israelites who are still alive,
leave Babylon now! Do not wait!
You are far away from your homes.
But remember that the Lord is with you.
Think about Jerusalem.
⁵¹ You say, “We are ashamed. People have insulted us.
We hide our faces in shame
because foreigners have gone into the holy places of the Lord's temple.” ’

‘The time will soon come when I will punish Babylon's idols.
People everywhere in that land will cry with pain,
because their wounds are causing them to die.
⁵³ Babylon's people may build their city very high.
They may make its walls very strong.
But I will send an army to destroy it.’

⁵⁴ ‘Listen to the noise that comes from Babylon!
People are crying in pain.
Listen to the noise of the enemy army
as it destroys Babylonia.
⁵⁵ The Lord is preparing to destroy Babylon.
No noise will come from there any more.
The enemy soldiers will attack like great waves of water.
There will be a loud noise of battle.
⁵⁶ An army is coming to destroy Babylon.
They will take hold of its brave soldiers.
They will break their weapons.
The Lord is a God who punishes people as they deserve.
He always pays them back for their sins.
⁵⁷ I will make Babylon's officers and its wise men drunk,
as well as its rulers, its leaders and its soldiers.
They will sleep for ever
and they will never wake up again.’

‘The enemy will completely knock down the strong walls of Babylon.
They will burn its high gates with fire.
The nations work very hard,
but their work is useless.
They make themselves tired,
but fire destroys all their work.’